Today's TV & radio choices

So if England struggled against India in the Test series what chance have they got in a one-day international? After losing to the West Indies in their last round of pyjama cricket, it would be a brave man who took odds on them coming up trumps in this seven-match series, which begins with a day/night game at Hampshire’s superb Rose Bowl. SH

A Very British Apocalypse Five, 7.15pm

Abi Freeman is coy about the precise date of the end of the world, but she’s sure it’s pretty soon. The cult member is just one of several eccentrics that the superb Laurie Taylor interviews in this examination of Britain’s most ardent eschatologists. MW

Undercover Mum ITV1, 8.00pm

Former undercover policewoman Nina Hobson turns her investigative skills to the issues that she says are worrying parents today. First up is a look at what really makes it on to the table in “family friendly” restaurants and pubs; future episodes will tackle the perhaps more pressing problems of debt and teenage drinking. MW

Search for the Lost Treasure of Afghanistan Five, 8.00pm

Is $500billion worth of Indian treasure really hidden in an Afghan cave? Tahir Shah dodges the Taliban to find out, and on the way reveals much about a blighted nation. MW

Tribe BBC2, 9.00pm

The remotest tribes on Earth just aren’t as remote as they used to be. For this third series of Bruce Parry’s engrossing travelogue, he first visits the Amazon rainforest’s Matis people. They actually live near enough to civilisation that some of the younger tribesmen go to school along the river in a nearby town. But that’s not to diminish their extraordinary way of life – they, and Parry, still act as capybara (giant rodents) in a ritual that supposedly makes them better hunters. A four-stage process of torture is also believed to help. What becomes clearer through the film is that while this is a group of people who prefer to hunt than go shopping, they are also willing to engage with the outside world. In return for permission to film, Parry must give them an outboard motor. But what Parry doesn’t provide is even a passing anthropological insight to make sense of all the vomiting, poisoning and shooting he endures. As it is, Tribe teeters on the brink of international voyeurism – albeit entertainingly. MW

Outrageous Wasters BBC3, 9.00pm

“Our priorities are enjoying ourselves. We haven’t got time to worry about the environment.” Cripes, that’s not something to admit when you’ve got three eco-warriors in the house. The Fowlers, from Stoke, seem to have money to burn, literally, and their carbon footprint is five times the national average. Maybe that’s because they’ve got 15 televisions and 20 games consoles. As for recycling: forget it. They are the perfect fodder for a new series in which eco-experts attempt to change the wasteful ways of energy-guzzling families. Sent off to spend five days at an eco boot camp in the Welsh Valleys, the Fowlers are challenged to get back to nature. That means no electricity, recycling urine and butchering a pig. Dad Roger isn’t happy: “I don’t think we should step back to how [Red] Indians lived to save the environment.” SH

The Secret Life of the Motorway BBC4, 9.00pm

The fascist governments of Germany and Italy had shown the way in the Thirties, but it wasn’t until 1956 that the “road revolution” reached Britain. It was then that work began on the eight-mile Preston Bypass, the country’s first motorway and, as this nostalgic homage confirms, we have never looked back. Over three episodes (continuing tomorrow and on Thursday), The Secret Life... talks to the people who planned them, built them and even tried to stop them. For the first time drivers could travel faster and quicker than ever before – it was a thrilling and euphoric experience, but one with dangerous consequences. Cars kept breaking down and with no speed limit and no crash barriers, accidents were commonplace. Worried that the public’s senses were being “numbed” by driving so fast, the government introduced the Motorway Code to combat the new dangers. SH

Gavin and Stacey BBC2, 10.00pm; not Scotland

A terrestrial run for this superb BBC3 comedy, which charts the peculiar difficulties of its stars’ Anglo-Welsh relationship. MW

SkinsChannel 4, 10.00pm

A terrestrial showing for E4’s full-on teen drama – sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll come thick and fast, but the script’s impressively observed, and the forthcoming second series promises to be even better. MW

DexterFX, 10.00pm

Oh, what a charming little series this is; its cleverness becomes more intriguing and revealing as each episode passes. The net is closing on the Ice Truck Killer – with Dexter’s (Michael C Hall) increasingly feisty sister, Debra, leading the way. Our serial killer hero likens the feeling of meeting his nemesis to a “Spanish explorer arriving on the shores of the New World”. Meanwhile, the recent release from jail of Rita’s husband – “a crack-addicted, wife-abusing yahoo” – is unsurprisingly causing a problem. SH

Amir Khan’s Angry Young Men The War on Democracy: a Film by John Pilger Channel 4, 11.05pm

What could give a loutish modern man more discipline than learning how to punch someone in the head until they’re unconscious? It’s easy to mock the idea that teaching yobs to box will make them more civilised, but – on this evidence – the drive and self-control of champion boxer Amir Khan is laudable indeed. Here the 20-year-old Muslim takes half a dozen tearaways and petty criminals, and tries to show them how his sport and his faith give him a sense of purpose and morality. He’s spent his whole career surrounded by his supportive family; these are boys more familiar with social services. Through this toughest of fights, Khan strives to mould his pupils into better men. First of three episodes. MW

FILM CHOICE

Cinderella Man (2005) Sky Movies Drama, 10.00pm

Making this boxing drama cost star Russell Crowe a dislocated shoulder, several concussions and a few cracked teeth – no wonder his portrayal of Jimmy Braddock fighting his way out of Depression-era poverty packs a punch. MW

RADIO CHOICES BY PATRICIA WYNN DAVIES

A Royal Recovery Radio 4, 9.00am

I am someone who doesn’t mind too much whether the monarchy proceeds in its current form or not, but even I felt sympathy for the Royal Family as they struggled to cope with the level of public hysteria provoked by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Ten years on, Spectator editor Matthew d’Ancona talks to Palace officials on the receiving end, including former Lord Chamberlain, Lord Luce, who tells how modernising the monarchy took on a new urgency.

Nusrat Was My Elvis Radio 4, 1.30pm

A little gem of a music programme, engagingly presented by journalist David Akhtar, about the late Pakistani Qawwali-fusion singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. You might think you haven’t heard him but you may well have, on the soundtrack of Martin Scorcese’s The Last Tempatation of Christ, in collaboration with Ry Cooder and Peter Gabriel, remixed by Massive Attack. It was Jeff Buckley who described him as his Elvis. It’s an adoring tribute to a performer who took devotional music global and made grown men weep when he first appeared at WOMAD before an almost all-white audience.